This past week, President Donald Trump pardoned Todd and Julie Chrisley, the former stars of USA Network’s reality show “Chrisley Knows Best.”
The Chrisleys were convicted in 2022 on multiple counts of financial fraud and tax evasion, but the jury’s decision meant little to Trump, who was lobbied on the issue by the couple’s daughter Savannah Chrisley. She spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention, arguing her parents were convicted because they are conservatives.
The episode is the latest chapter in both the Republican Party’s close connections to reality TV and the strange obsession the right has with false reality.
For decades, conservative Americans have been growing less trustful of media that is not biased to their perspective. From that practice sprung cries of “fake news” and “liberal media.” But conservatives are often all too credulous when it comes to figures created by the reality TV industry, which purports to present the real world but is frequently scripted.
Because of this, the conservative movement regularly elevates these people from the screens in their living rooms into positions of high power and influence.
Donald Trump
Trump is easily the most successful beneficiary of the reality-TV-to-Republican-politics pipeline. Known largely for tabloid feuds and serial affairs, Trump’s fame grew when NBC’s “The Apprentice” cast him as a powerful businessman. The entire thing was a put-on. Trump made more in licensing his name amid the show’s popularity than from his purported genius in real estate, but conservatives to this day tout him as a businessman who knows how to make deals.
In the presidency, he has failed to generate those deals and has more often seen key dealmaking opportunities slip through his fingers, from health care to infrastructure.
Sean Duffy
Sean Duffy, Trump’s transportation secretary, proudly lists his reality TV resume in his official biography on the Department of Transportation website.
The biography notes that Duffy got his TV start on MTV’s “The Real World,” then transitioned to “Road Rules All Stars,” where he met fellow contestant Rachel Campos-Duffy, now his wife and a Fox News personality. His department biography also clearly notes, “Rachel and Sean are America’s first and longest-married reality TV couple,” in case anyone was wondering.
Duffy also used his TV credits as a springboard to a House seat in Wisconsin, which he held for 10 years, before returning to TV screens on Fox Business—until Trump called him up to serve in the Cabinet.
The Duggars
The Duggar family appeared for 10 seasons on TLC’s show “19 Kids and Counting,” featuring their large family. As conservative Christians, parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar were attached at the hip to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, endorsed his 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns, and “begged” him to run in 2012 as well.
In 2015, after allegations surfaced that their son Josh Duggar had molested underage girls, Huckabee voiced support for the family. In 2021, father Jim Bob Duggar ran on the GOP ticket in an Arkansas state Senate race. He lost—just a few days after Josh Duggar was convicted for possessing child sexual abuse material.
Omarosa Manigault Newman
Omarosa Manigault Newman was one of the most well-known contestants with Trump’s “The Apprentice,” and by 2004, hot off being “fired” from the show, she said she was considering a run for Congress or the presidency. She never did that but was part of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, saying that his critics “will have to bow down” to him.
By 2017, she was a part of the Trump administration but was fired after about a year on the job. Newman then returned to TV on “Big Brother,” appearing on American and Australian spin-offs of the program.
She wrote a tell-all book about Trump, released secretly recorded audio tapes of Trump, and was rewarded a settlement after Trump’s campaign sued her.
Caitlyn Jenner
A former Olympian decathlete, Caitlyn Jenner is more recently known for appearing on “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” with her ex-wife Kris Kardashian. Jenner used that television fame to become a Republican activist and even unsuccessfully ran in the 2021 election to recall Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Jenner, a transgender woman, has been open and enthusiastic about her support for Trump, who has tried to roll back equal rights for transgender people. After Trump won in 2024 on a campaign smearing transgender people, she wrote on Instagram, “Thank God the American people have spoken.”
Antonio Sabàto Jr.
Former Calvin Klein model and “General Hospital” star Antonio Sabàto Jr. is a reality TV veteran. Among his credits are “But Can They Sing?”, “Celebrity Circus,” “My Antonio,” and even “Celebrity Wife Swap” On the latter program, he “swapped” wives with former WWE wrestler Mick Foley, which led to an on-air argument with his then-fiance, Cheryl Nunes.
By 2016, Sabàto was stumping for Trump, even speaking on his behalf at the Republican National Convention. Sabàto tried to keep the momentum going by running for Congress in 2018 but was crushed by 18 percentage points in his race against Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley in California.
“Duck Dynasty”
The Robertson family appeared on A&E’s “Duck Dynasty” for five years as the series explored their lives and fortunes made from selling products for duck hunters. Members of the family were a constant presence on Fox News, promoting their right-wing Christian views.
In 2014, the patriarch of the family, Phil Robertson, was being recruited to run for the Republicans as a Senate candidate in Louisiana. He declined. His son Willie Robertson spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention as part of the process to nominate Trump as the party’s presidential candidate.
The GOP’s embrace of reality TV personalities is ironic, considering the party has often attacked Democrats for their close affiliation with actors, actresses, and other Hollywood creatives. In the 2008 presidential election, Republican nominee John McCain even produced ads chiding then-Sen. Barack Obama for being a celebrity and compared him with reality TV star Paris Hilton.
How things have changed.
Republicans love their D-list stars, compared with well-known A-listers who largely back the Democratic Party. Stars like Tom Hanks and Julia Louis-Dreyfus carry considerably more cultural cachet than the “Duck Dynasty” cast, for instance.
If anything, the political success of Trump should probably be taken as a warning sign for the right. Trump isn’t good at being president, and the public doesn’t like him. And much of that can be attributed to the fact that he truly lived in reality for a long time, instead reveling in the fake world of “The Apprentice,” where he was falsely depicted as a savvy businessman.
Still, the right still seems to have a hearty appetite for boosting whoever comes next off of the reality TV assembly line, and some of the future leaders of the Republican Party are very likely starring in a show or two right now.